No, but you can still be an I/O pro. Originally, the name I/O was based on the first two digits in a googol (a one, followed by 100 zeroes), the number that lends our company its name. According to lore, I/O has evolved to also nod to “input / output,” referencing the computational concept of interfacing between a computer system and the outside world, and “innovation in the open.” Pretty fitting, don’t you think?
Website: LINK
On the Android Developers Blog, we’re sharing how we’re making it easier than ever for developers to build safe apps, while also continuing to strengthen our ecosystem’s protection in 2025 and beyond. Here are just a few highlights:
You can read more on the Android Developers Blog.
Website: LINK
It’s been a big year for Google AI. It may seem as though features like Circle to Search and NotebookLM’s Audio Overviews have been around for as long as you can remember, but they only launched in 2024. Joining them were a slew of other product releases and updates meant to make your day-to-day life even a little bit easier. So, as we say goodbye to 2024 (and prepare for the exciting AI news that’s sure to come in 2025), take a look at some of the top Google AI news stories that resonated with readers this year.
2024 began, quite fittingly, with fresh updates across a host of products and tools, including Gemini, Chrome, Pixel and Search. The announcement of our Circle to Search feature made a particular splash with readers. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
February brought a new chapter of our Gemini era, including the debut of Gemini 1.5; the news that Bard was becoming Gemini; the launch of Gemini Advanced; and more. We also announced new generative AI tools in Labs and tech to help developers and researchers build AI responsibly. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
Health took center stage in March, with our annual Google Health Check Up event to show how AI is helping us connect people to health information and insights that matter to them. Stories about how we’re using AI for good also made the top-news cut, along with AI-based travel tools coverage as readers looked toward summer. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
Spring showers bring…generative AI? Many of April’s top stories focused on how helpful generative AI can be to different groups of people, including developers, business owners, advertisers and Google Photos users. It was also a big month for AI skills-building, thanks to our AI Opportunity Fund and AI Essentials course. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
May is synonymous with Google I/O around these parts, so it’s no wonder that much of the month’s top news was from our annual developer conference. At this year’s event, we shared how we’re building more helpful products and features with AI. But even amid all the I/O chatter, Googlers were working on other launches, like that of our AlphaFold 3 model, which holds big promise for science and medicine. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
In June, much of our AI news emphasized how this technology can help people in ways big and small. Stories covered both land (how Google Translate is helping people connect with one another all around the world, even if they don’t speak the same language) and sea (how a first-of-its-kind global map of ocean infrastructure is creating a better understanding of things like biodiversity). Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
July was one of those months that makes clear how many things Googlers are working on at once with major announcements for Gemini, Google AI features on Samsung devices, our focus on secure AI and our Olympics partnership with Team USA and NBCUniversal. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
August was a key moment for Google hardware, thanks to our Made by Google event, along with our Nest Learning Thermostat and Google TV Streamer releases. But software was in the mix, too — we’re looking at you, Chrome, Android and Gemini. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
Then came another month that underscored our mission to make AI helpful for everyone. Highlights included the launch of Audio Overviews in NotebookLM; the news of a new satellite constellation designed to detect wildfires more quickly; and tips on using Gemini features in Gmail. But that wasn’t all! Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
October saw a slate of additional AI updates across products including Pixel, NotebookLM, Search and Shopping. Plus, we announced updates to the Search ads experiences at Google Marketing Live — helping advertisers use AI to reach their customers. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
This month was a time for both work and play, with news including how developers are using Gemini API and how chess-lovers can use AI to reimagine their sets. Plus, holiday prep was afoot with new updates to Google Lens and Shopping. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
We celebrated the one-year anniversary of our Gemini era by introducing our next, agentic era in AI — brought to life by our newest, most capable model, Gemini 2.0. We also shared landmark quantum chip news, and a whole raft of new generative AI offerings in Android, Pixel, Gemini, and our developer platforms AI Studio and Vertex AI. It’s certainly been a December to remember. Here were some of the top Google AI news stories of the month:
There you have it! Twelve months of top Google AI news in a flash. And the best part: Teams at Google are hard at work to keep the momentum going in 2025.
Website: LINK
Today we released Play’s 2024 Best of Awards, which honor the year’s most creative apps and games. Developers from Asia-Pacific took home over 60% of the awards — a testament to the creativity coming from the region, powered by millions of Android developers.
In the gaming category, Asia-Pacific developers took home 62% of all gaming awards handed out in the United States, Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia and Taiwan. Chinese studio FARLIGHT’s AFK Journey claimed the “Best Game” honor for its stunning visuals and immersive fantasy world, while Korea’s Devsisters Corporation took home the “Best for Google Play Games on PC” award for CookieRun: Tower of Adventures, delighting players with its adventurous gameplay across mobile and web.
Asia-Pacific developers picked up a third of the global awards in the entertainment apps category, with China and Korea emerging as powerhouses, particularly with mobile-friendly, short-form content. China’s DramaBox – Stream Drama Shorts won “Best for Fun” in Indonesia and Hong Kong, while Korea’s Vigloo – Premier Short Dramas snagged “Best Hidden Gem” in Korea, proving the strong appeal of drama shorts and showing how Play is critical for developers who aspire to go global. In fact, 85% of monthly active users of Korean-developed apps were based overseas in 2023.
Manga apps continued to thrive in Japan, where we recently launched a dedicated Comics space on Play to help fans discover new apps and content. SHOGAKUKAN INC’s MangaONE, which won the „Best App“ award, redesigned its interface to celebrate its 10th anniversary, giving manga fans a fresh way to enjoy their favorite titles. JumpTOON, a new app from SHUEISHA INC. designed specifically for webtoons, snagged the „Best for Fun“ award.
AI is also increasingly transforming app experiences, and developers from Asia-Pacific are leading the way. In India, almost 1,000 apps and games are using AI technology. One example is Hey Alle’s Alle – Your AI Fashion Stylist, which offers AI-powered personalized style advice based on occasion, body type and facial features. The app snagged both the „Best App“ and „Best for Fun“ awards in the country.
Singapore’s Notewise stood out with its AI-powered note-taking app, earning the “Best for Personal Growth” award in Taiwan and Hong Kong for making work and learning more efficient. China’s Starii Tech also made waves with Winkit – AI Video Enhancer, an app that allows users to create custom videos and animated avatars, winning the “Best Hidden Gem” award in several Asia-Pacific markets.
Gaming can bring people together, which is why we’re committed to making the gaming experience fun and engaging for everyone. You can earn rewards for playing your favorite games on Play, connect with a passionate community of gamers on YouTube, discover new titles you’ll love through Ads, and enjoy secure, seamless gameplay powered by Cloud.
This week at the Google for Games Developer Summit, we unveiled a suite of new tools and product features for developers and gamers. With these updates, developers can take their games to the next level so players like you can experience even more immersive worlds and have new ways to interact with your favorite titles. Here’s a look at what’s new.
Starting today, Google Play Pass subscribers in select markets will receive in-game items and discounts on popular games like EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, MONOPOLY GO! and Roblox. This is offered in addition to our current catalog of over 1,000 ad-free games and apps, so you get even more value at the same monthly price
Whether it’s the color of your phone, your choice of phone case, the hardware of your device or the choices you’ve made to customize its software, your devices are an extension of your personality. Android has always helped you express yourself in both practical and artistic ways–from the wallpaper, style and color palette theme to buttons and backgrounds. Now, we’re introducing more ways to tailor your phone to your personal preferences.
Android 14’s updated customization picker makes it easier to switch between wallpapers and update what you want to see at a glance. You can now set custom lock screen shortcuts, like QR reader or the Google Home app, so you have quick, one-tap access to your most used controls directly from your Android lock screen.
Choose from a set of new, curated lock screen templates for fonts, widgets, colors and formats that best match your style. These options also use AI to adjust your screen based on your situation. For example, if the weather is suddenly taking a turn for the worse, your lock screen weather widget will become more prominent.
Android 14 also lets you show off your most creative and artistic self — no art skills required. Coming first to Pixel 8/8 Pro, generative AI wallpapers use AI-generated text-to-image diffusion models to help you create wallpapers that match your vision. You can choose from pre-set suggestions to create never-before-seen wallpapers in just a few taps.
If you prefer a less colorful phone aesthetic that is easy on the eyes, Android 14 includes a monochromatic theme that makes minimal colors look sleek and beautiful across your entire device.
Android is also helping to improve your photo and camera quality. Building on Android 13’s support for high dynamic range (HDR) video, Android 14 supports HDR images with Ultra HDR. Ultra HDR helps your photos look their best by bringing out vibrant colors, brighter highlights and darker shadows. Plus, thanks to the great HDR screens available on many of today’s phones, Ultra HDR takes and displays high-definition photos without altering the original quality of the image.
Apps help people track their fitness, health and wellness levels. But the data that’s collected is often isolated within each particular app, limiting your visibility and control over your data. Health Connect is now built into your Android 14 settings as a central way to store all your data in one place and stay in control of your privacy. And your data is securely encrypted on your phone, which ensures Google or anyone else can’t see or use it for any other purpose. Just connect and sync your favorite health and fitness apps — like Oura, Peloton and Whoop — to get started.
You’ll also have more visibility into how your data is being used by apps that request access to your data. With new data sharing updates on Android 14, when you’re asked to grant apps permission to information like your location you’ll be notified when an app is sharing location data with third parties and can make a more informed decision on whether or not to grant access.
Website: LINK
In honor of the 45th anniversary of the iconic game “SPACE INVADERS,” we partnered with TAITO, the game’s developer, and Unit9 to transform the world into a playground — thanks to augmented reality (AR).
“SPACE INVADERS: World Defense,” a mobile game on Android and iOS, invites players from around the world to get outside and defend the Earth. Space Invaders spawn from buildings and rooftops, hide behind structures and hover in the sky. Through global immersive gameplay, players from all over the world have to work together to save the planet.
Players explore their neighborhoods to discover new Space Invaders and score points by taking them down. They can unlock special power-ups, compete with friends for the top score near their location and share their achievements on social media with an AR selfie.
Checks has experienced tremendous growth over the past year, helping global companies in the gaming, health, finance, education and retail sectors. With apps from current Checks customers representing over 3+ billion in collective downloads, the platform has already helped companies, like Miniclip, Rovio, Kongregate, Crayola and Yousician, navigate privacy compliance more efficiently.
Checks has also partnered with the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Privacy Certified team to accelerate and enhance their privacy and data compliance processes globally. This partnership helps ensure that ESRB Privacy Certified members are compliant with the latest privacy regulations and are providing their customers with the best possible experience.
As the privacy landscape continues to evolve, Google recognizes the importance of continuing to provide tools that help our partners and our users. From our Safer with Google program to the newly announced Privacy Sandbox, Google is committed to helping developers build trust with their users. We strongly believe that privacy is for everyone and we are here to help make it easier for companies to protect the privacy of their users.
If you are a company that is looking to simplify privacy compliance, please visit our website at checks.google.com to get started!
Despite having no tech background, Jelena has become a pioneer of the gaming industry in Montenegro. While working in HR, she was asked to set up one of the first gaming studios in the country. 3Hills‘ debut was Starblind, an endless adventure in outer space where players face UFOs and explore the universe. Apart from producing mobile games, 3Hills is also a tech academy, teaching hundreds of future developers digital skills for free. Jelena’s team is passionate about inspiring others and helping people take their first steps in mobile gaming and app design.
Read about other app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.
Born and raised in Salvador, Brazil, Filipe has always been fascinated with his country’s culture and past. So much so that he decided to study history, eventually becoming a teacher and researcher. Also a long-time gamer, Filipe saw gaming as a creative way to tell stories — and realized it was a good medium to reach people beyond the classroom and share Brazil’s heritage with the world.
So together with his business partner, Victor, he founded Aoca Game Lab. Now a team of eight people, Aoca Game Lab recently launched their first title on mobile, ÁRIDA: Backland’s Awakening, a survival game following the adventures of a young girl in the historic town of Canudos, Brazil. And they were recently selected as one of Google Play’s Indie Games Fund recipients, which supports small games studios based in Latin America.
Filipe shared his story in our latest film for #WeArePlay, which celebrates people around the world building apps and games. We chatted more with Filipe about combining his passions for history and gaming, what’s next for the studio and the team’s recent trip to Canudos to introduce the game to those who inspired it.
Agonalea Games, Argentina
“We have taken part in Google Play programs in the past, which have had a huge impact on our business. It’s clear there is a proactive effort to support Latin American developers, and it’s huge for both local communities and the global games industry.” — Vanina Fregoti, COO
One day, Annabel Angwenyi was running errands in Nairobi, Kenya when her car refused to start. She called her usual mechanic, but he was busy helping another customer on the opposite side of town. She knew there must be another mechanic close by, but because many local businesses don’t have an online presence, she had trouble finding and contacting someone else. Annabel was frustrated — but she also saw an opportunity to solve a problem.
After a lot of research, hard work and perseverance, she and her co-founder Patrick launched Ziada, an app that connects people across Kenya to local service providers. Today, Ziada has a team of seven people and over 60,000 downloads on Google Play.
Annabel is one of the founders featured in #WeArePlay, which spotlights the people behind Google Play’s apps and games. We chatted with Annabel to learn more about how she got Ziada up and running with no tech experience, and the impact it’s had on the local community.
How did you turn your idea into an app?
Patrick and I didn’t have any tech experience — we’re both business people. So in 2017, we partnered with a software developer who believed in our dream and helped us create the app. After a lot of hard work, we published the first version of Ziada on Google Play that same year. But it didn’t really take off. We weren’t sure if the Kenyan market was ready for something like this, so we took a break.
Then when the pandemic started in 2020, we noticed people wanted to access more things on demand and online, like food delivery and taxi services. So we rebranded the app, including improving the user interface to better reflect how we could help, and launched again. Now, our app has over 60,000 downloads on Google Play and is helping service providers across Kenya find new customers.
What impact has your app had on the community?
Kenya is an entrepreneurial nation, with people just like us wanting to build something for themselves. Having owned small businesses in the past, we knew the app had potential to help others grow their businesses. And it makes us so happy to see this actually happening. I’m also really proud of how we’re helping women — who make up 38% of service providers on Ziada — create their own income. I believe when you empower women, you empower the whole community. It’s something that’s really close to our hearts at Ziada. Most of our team are women, and many of us mentor young girls in the community. In fact, two of our mentees are joining Ziada as software developers.
Any advice for someone starting their own app or game business?
Just jump in. I think that initial leap of faith is the hardest one to make — it definitely was for me. The app or game will never be 100% perfect, and if you wait for that moment, the train may have already left (both in terms of user needs and market share).
If you have a working prototype or early version of your app, get it on Google Play and build hype around it. I was surprised at how patient our users were with Ziada in its early days, even with all its shortcomings. But that’s because they wanted it to work. If you’re providing a good solution to a problem, the adopters will come.
What’s next for Ziada?
We’re always working on new services, like helping contractors rent equipment and tools to complete jobs or providing coaching through our upcoming business advisory service. We also want to keep partnering with growing, local businesses and expand our user base — not just in Kenya, but across the African continent. There’s so much potential here, and we’re only just getting started.
Read more about Annabel and other app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.
Learn how Annabel, featured in our #WeArePlay series, built her app business out of a local challenge.
Today we’re opening applications for the 2021 editions of the Indie Games Accelerator and the Indie Games Festival from Google Play. These programs are designed to support the growth of small games studios that bring unique games to players around the world.
The Indie Games Accelerator brings the best of Google’s programs, products, people and technology to indie game developers that are full of potential. Selected studios will get free education and mentorship from Google and top industry experts to help them build and grow a successful games company.
This year the program will be fully digital and is expanding to nearly double the markets, including the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, South Korea and others.
The Indie Games Festival celebrates the creativity and innovation of top indie talent. Selected games will be rewarded with promotions on Google Play and dedicated marketing campaigns that will help players worldwide discover the games.
We will host three competitions for indie game developers from Japan, South Korea and select European countries.
If you are an indie game developer based in one of the eligible countries, apply for either program by July 1st.
Grow your indie game with the help from Google Play. Apply by July 1st for the Indie Games Accelerator and the Indie Games Festival.
On September 4, we’re celebrating some of the best indie talent on Google Play during the Indie Games Festival finals for Europe, Japan and South Korea. This year the three festivals are virtual, so you can join us to discover the games, meet the developers who created them, cheer them on and be the first to hear who the winners are.
In June we kicked off the Indie Games Festival – a competition to celebrate the innovation and creativity that indie developers bring to Google Play. We received thousands of submissions, showing our judges how unique and diverse our games developer community is.
The panel of judges have now selected 20 games in each region – listed below – to go forward to the finals on September 4. Each finalist receives exclusive promotions and prizes that give their games the recognition they deserve.
So, don’t miss out. Expect plenty of fun and some very special surprises. Sign up now to virtually attend the festivals for Europe, Japan and South Korea. The events are free to attend and will all take place in the same space, so sign up to one and you will be able to teleport to all events!
Beat Workers by NaturalPad Games, France
Bird Alone by George Batchelor, United Kingdom
Cats in Time by Pine Studio, Croatia
Figment by Bedtime Digital Games, Denmark
Froglike: The Frog Roguelike by Jimjum Studios, Israel
Garson by Anastasiya Shabunia, Belarus
Gumslinger by Itatake, Sweden
Lyxo by Emoak, Austria
Psychofunk by Tommy Søreide Kjær, Norway
Railways by Infinity Games, Portugal
Sticky Terms by kamibox, Germany
Sweet Sins Superstars by Platonic Games, Spain
Tiny Robots Recharged by Big Loop Studios, Bulgaria
Tofu Drifter by Roach Games, Russia
Towers by JOX Development, Ukraine
Unholy Adventure by Dali Games, Poland
Warplane Inc by Nuclear Games, Russia
Watch Me Stream My Mental Breakdown by Ultaan Games, Poland
Woof: The Good Boy Story by CHPV.GAMES, Russia
Zen Symmetry by 8tbl, Russia
Sign up to attend the European finals.
3D Chess: NOCCA NOCCA by Curiouspark, Inc.
5colors in Nate by NekodoraSoft
Amabie san by HARAPECORPORATION Inc.
Archer Battle Online by Takuya Fujieda
Cthulhu DreamStairs by Tenyu
ElectriarCode by ELECTRIAR LABO / Blue
Escape from the Closed Circle by Hanachiru
Heart of Sengoku by ZEN APP
Leaving Two Tiles Dojo by ScreenPocket
Living in the Ending World by illuCalab.
MAKOTO WAKAIDO’s Case Files “Executioner’s Wedge” by HafHaf-Oden (Sukashiuma-LAB）
Mini Mini Farm by CoffeeBreak
MonohakobiPro by CGO
Mousebusters by Odencat
Numpurr Card Wars by Nukenin
Parasite Days by Zxima
Quantum Transport by ruccho
Super Glitter Rush by tiny cactus studio
Survivor’s guilt by aso
Wolf Chess by baton inc.
Sign up to attend the Japanese finals.
Angel Saga by Alchemist Games Inc.
Animal Card Royale by Banjihagames
Animal Doll Shop by Funnyeve
BattleLive: Zombie&Human by PLOTRICK
Box It Up! Inc. by team TAPE
CATS & SOUP by HIDEA
Cats are Cute: Pop Time by kkiruk studio
Detective Mio by 1N1
Dicast: Rules of Chaos by BSS COMPANY
Forest Island by Nanali Studios
Frontier of Fortune by Dotomchi Games Inc.
FUNKYGUNNER by FUNKY5
Group Project Simulator! by Studio806
Gun Tactics by Gimle Games
Hybrid Warrior: Dungeon of the Overlord by Cat Lab
Metro Blossom by The Sane Studio
Portal Dungeon by Oblique Line
Rush Hour Rally by Soen Games
The Way Home by CONCODE
Titan Slayer by Touchholic
Sign up to attend the South Korean finals.
PS: Curious to hear who was selected for the Indie Games Accelerator? Attend the European Festival to find out!
Register to attend the Indie Games Festival from Google Play to discover the best games, meet the teams behind them and have fun.
Every year Google Play, hosts the Indie Games Festival, a competition that rewards high quality indie games with promotional opportunities and supports small mobile games developers. We also host the Indie Games Accelerator, an educational and mentorship program to help high potential studios grow their business.
Last weekend, some of the best indie game creators from Europe, South Korea and Japan, as well as players from around the world, got together at the Festival’s finals. At this interactive virtual event, players had the chance to discover these creative games, meet the people who made them and had a lot of fun exploring, collecting swag and cheering on their favorites.
We also revealed the Top 10 finalists and Festival winners in each region, as well as the studios selected to join the Indie Games Accelerator class of 2021.
Without further ado, here are the winners!
Bird Alone by George Batchelor, United Kingdom
Cats in Time by Pine Studio, Croatia
Gumslinger by Itatake, Sweden
CATS & SOUP by HIDEA
Rush Hour Rally by Soen Games
The Way Home by CONCODE
Users’ Choice aware: Animal Doll Shop by Funnyeve
Mousebusters by Odencat
Quantum Transport by ruccho
Survivor’s guilt by aso
Student Category Award: Japanese Train Drive Simulator 2 „OneMan2“ by HAKOT
Also check out the top 10 finalists in Europe, South Korea and Japan.
Aoca Game Lab, Brazil
Berimbau Game Studio, Brazil
Boomware Studio, Peru
Concrete Software, USA
Delotech Games, Brazil
DreamCraft Entertainment, Inc., USA
Ingames, Argentina
Ludare Games Group Inc., Canada
Whitethorn Games, USA
Cleverside Ltd, Belarus
Dali Games, Poland
Firegecko Ltd, United Kingdom
Hot Siberians, Russia
Infinity Games, Portugal
Itatake, Sweden
Jimjum Studios, Israel
LIVA Interactive, Tunisia
Pale Blue Interactive, South Africa
Pine Studio, Croatia
Platonic Games, Spain
SMOKOKO LTD, Bulgaria
Spooky House Studios, Germany
Banjiha Games, South Korea
CATS BY STUDIO, South Korea
dc1ab pte. Ltd., Singapore
Dreams & Co., Thailand
Gamestacy Entertainment, India
izzle Inc., South Korea
Limin Development and Investment Joint Stock Company, Vietnam
Mugshot Games Pty Ltd, Australia
Odencat Inc., Japan
Playbae, India
Xigma Games, India
XOGAMES Inc., South Korea
YOMI Studio, Vietnam
Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to the selected games and studios. Stay tuned for more updates on @GooglePlayDev.
Some of the best indie games from Europe, South Korea and Japan have been announced at the Indie Games Festival event.
Indie game developers are known for creating some of the most innovative titles to land on Google Play. It’s this creativity that captures the imagination of the more than 2.5 billion people using our platform each month.
At Google Play, it is our mission to help indie game developers reach their full potential, wherever they are in their journey.
This year, the Indie Games programs are back once again to help talented indie developers design, launch and grow high-quality games and reach new players. Find out more about how the 2022Indie Games Accelerator & Festival helps developers to go further faster.
If you’re an indie developer who is early in your journey — either close to launching a new game or have recently launched a title — this high-impact program is designed for you.
With the help of our network of gaming experts, the Indie Game Accelerator provides education and mentorship for ambitious developers to help you build, launch and grow successfully.
Selected game studios will be invited to take part in the 10-week acceleration program starting inSeptember 2022 as the Accelerator Class of 2022.
This is a highly-tailored program for small game developers spanning 78 eligible countries, that includes a series of online masterclasses, talks and game development workshops. You’ll also get the chance to meet and connect with other developers from around the world who are looking to take their games to the next level.
If you’re a passionate indie game developer and you have recently launched a high-quality game, enter your game to be showcased at the Indie Games Festival by Google Play.
Once again, we are hosting three international competitions in search of the most promising games from Japan, South Korea, and selected European countries, to celebrate the Top 20 indie games in each region.
The festival jury will consist of both gaming experts and Googlers, who are charged with finding creative indie games that are ready for the spotlight. As a finalist you will be able to join the Festival showcase and get your game discovered by top industry experts and players worldwide.
You can now enter your game to one of the Festival contests: Europe, Japan & South Korea.
For more updates and announcements about the Indie Games programs follow @GooglePlayBiz.
The Indie Games programs are back once again to help talented indie developers design, launch and grow high-quality games and reach new players.
Every month, over 2.5 billion people visit Google Play to discover millions of apps and games. Behind each of these apps is an entrepreneur (or two… or three) with a unique story to tell. Some have been programming since childhood, others just learned how to code. Some live in busy cities, others in smaller towns. No matter how different their backgrounds are, these creators all have one thing in common — the passion to turn an idea into a growing business.
#WeArePlay celebrates and shares their stories. Over the next few months, you’ll hear from the people and businesses behind Google Play apps and games, and how they’re making an impact around the world.
Our series kicks off spotlighting Yvonne and Alyssa, the London-based mother and daughter duo who created Frobelles — a dress-up game that helps increase representation of African and Caribbean hair styles in the game industry.
You’ll also meet Hand Talk Translator’s Ronaldo, Carlos and Theadeu from Brazil, DailyArt’s Zuzanna from Poland, and TravelSpend’s world-trotting couple Ina and Jonas from Germany.
A big thank you to all the apps and games businesses that are part of our Google Play community. Dive into some of their stories today and stay tuned for more.
#WeArePlay celebrates the global community of people building apps and games businesses on Google Play. Discover their stories today.
Last week, we launched #WeArePlay, a new series featuring the people behind your favorite Google Play apps and games. To celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, we’re putting a special spotlight on app founders and developers across every U.S. state. #WeArePlay USA introduces you to the passionate professionals behind more than 150 growing businesses.
Let’s take a quick road trip across the #WeArePlay USA collection, starting in the Big Apple. New Yorker Tanya was so inspired when her eight-year-old daughter asked to open an investment account that she created Goalsetter — an app that helps kids learn about finance through fun activities. She wants to help kids, and their parents, build stronger financial futures: “Part of my mission is to close the wealth gap in America by educating the next generation.” Read more stories from New York.
Our next stop is Raleigh, North Carolina to meet Joe, John and Grant. They created JouleBug to help people better understand their environmental impact through interactive challenges — like competing with friends to save the most energy or reduce the most waste. “As we go through our days, it’s become easy to waste resources and not even notice it,” says Grant. “We want to draw attention to this and show how simple it is to change your habits.” Discover more stories from North Carolina.
Making our way west, we meet Clarence and Edna in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They both share a passion for education and worked together to create Boddle — a 3D game that motivates kids to learn math. Using AI, Boddle also helps parents and teachers tailor learning content and track performance. Check out more stories from Oklahoma.
Our final stop brings us to Santa Monica, California with Jenova. While he was in film school, Jenova asked himself — could a game make you cry the same way a movie can? He launched thatgamecompany and started building games that tug at players’ heartstrings. His company now has close to 100 employees. Read more stories from California.
Explore the rest of the #WeArePlay USA collection, and stay tuned for more stories from around the world.
#WeArePlay USA celebrates the community of people across the country building apps and games businesses on Google Play.
Google Play turned 10 this year, and we’ve been keeping the celebrations going with local developer communities around the world. It’s an extra special occasion in Asia Pacific, which is home to one of the largest app developer populations (nearly a third of the 26.9 million app developers worldwide) and one of the most engaged audiences. In fact, people in Asia Pacific download and use mobile apps more than any other region.
Developers in Asia Pacific are reaching global audiences, with hundreds of millions of downloads outside the region. Some of these apps have become global names and inspired new trends on Play, like multiplayer gaming (Mobile Legends: Bang Bang), super apps (Grab), rapid delivery e-commerce (Coupang) and fintech solutions for the unbanked (Paytm).
Let’s take a closer look at some other emerging themes on Play — like mental health, news and music — where developers in Asia Pacific are making their mark globally.
Developer: Seekrtech, Taiwan
Listed on Play: August 2014
“The main goal of Forest is to encourage users to put down their phones and focus on the more important things around them,” says Shaokan Pi, CEO of Forest. Here’s how it works — you set a focus time period, whether you’re working at the office or at dinner with friends. Once you put down your phone, a virtual tree starts growing. If you stay focused (and don’t look at your phone), the sapling grows into a big tree. And you can earn virtual coins to grow more trees, and eventually a whole forest. There’s a real-world benefit, too — thanks to a partnership between Forest and Trees for the Future, you can spend your coins to plant real trees on Earth.
The Forest team planting a tree in Kenya
Developer: SmartNews, Japan
Listed on Play: March 2013
SmartNews, which is also celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, uses artificial intelligence to collect and deliver a curated view of news from all over the world. But it’s not just an echo chamber — its News From All Sides feature shows people articles across a wide spectrum of political perspectives. SmartNews has also developed timely products like a COVID-19 dashboard and trackers for wildfires and hurricanes.
Developer: Evolve, India
Listed on Play: July 2020
Evolve, a health-tech startup supporting the wellbeing of the LGBTQ+ community, landed on Google Play’s Best of 2021 list in India. The app offers educational content for members of the LGBTQ+ community, covering topics like embracing your sexuality and coming out to loved ones. “There is a need for more customized solutions for this community,” says Anshul Kamath, co-founder of Evolve. “We hope to provide a virtual safe space where members can work on themselves and specific challenges that impact their daily mental health.”
The Evolve team with their “Best of Play” trophy in 2021
Developer: Amanotes, Vietnam
Listed on Play: February 2017
This musical game app quickly found fans in the U.S., Japan, Brazil and Russia. Magic Tiles 3 is designed to let anyone — even those without a musical background — play instruments like the piano, guitar and drums on their smartphone. You can choose from over 5,000 songs across genres like pop, rap, jazz and electronic dance music, and compete in an interactive game with others around the world.
Developer: Mom Sitter, Korea
Listed on Play: September 2021
Mom Sitter, a platform connecting parents with babysitters, topped the Play Store’s childcare category in Korea last year. But it didn’t actually start as a mobile app. It was founded as a website to help parents find babysitters while they were at work or when daycare centers were too full. After attending the ChangGoo program, Google’s training program for developers and startups in Korea, the Mom Sitter team learned they could reach more people if they went mobile. Today, caretakers all over the world use their services. “Childcare issues concern not only working women but everyone who raises children, and it’s important that they can find support,” says Jeeyea Chung, founder of Mom Sitter.
To celebrate 10 years of Google Play, we’re spotlighting five app developers in Asia Pacific who are making an impact.
This week, we hosted the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free digital event for developers, publishers and advertisers to discuss what’s new in games. And with over three billion global players across platforms, there was plenty of ground to cover. From Android Game Development Kit updates to the new Immersive Stream for Games, we shared the latest tools to help you build your next adventure, find new players and take your game to the next level.
Missed the summit? Here’s a quick recap of the top announcements. For more details, catch the keynote and developer sessions available on demand.
Reach more devices through new tools and platforms
We’re committed to supporting developers of all sizes who are building high-quality Android games. Updates to the Android Game Development Kit simplify the development process, while new data insights in Play Console can help you make smarter business decisions. We’re also enabling games on new screens and devices, including the Google Play Games for PC Beta, so you can meet players wherever they are.
Improve your game growth strategy with ads
Advertisers can now improve target return on ad spend (tROAS) performance with App campaigns by integrating AdMob and third-party ad revenue data into Google Analytics for bid optimization. Publishers can get more visibility into return on investment with impression-level lifetime value in AdMob, also available for app attribution platforms Adjust, AppsFlyer and Singular. Learn more about these product announcements in our recent Google Ads blog post.
Create safe, inclusive gaming experiences with Google Cloud
In partnership with game creators and the open source community, we want to ensure games are social, enjoyable and inclusive for players everywhere. With Clean Chat, a new open source AI framework for games, studios can now proactively detect negative dialogue in both text and voice chat.
Build a direct-to-consumer business with Immersive Stream for Games
Developers and publishers interested in building a direct-to-consumer business can now deliver their titles directly to players with Immersive Stream for Games. Developed by the Stadia team in partnership with Google Cloud, Immersive Stream for Games combines advanced streaming technology with cheaper and easier game porting, powerful discovery features and analytics. Whether you want to offer game trials, full games, subscription bundles or even power an entire storefront, Immersive Stream for Games can help.
Thanks for joining us at this year’s Google for Games Developer Summit — remember to check out the on-demand sessions, and stay tuned for more gaming updates soon. We’re here to help you keep building and innovating your games for players everywhere.
Highlights from the Google for Games Developer Summit, including new tools and solutions to help developers build great gaming experiences.
Website: LINK
Pictured left to right: Natalia Villalobos, Omoju Miller, Laura Markell and Kat Kuan
In 2015, Developer Advocate Kat Kuan and I took a walk around the marshlands of Google’s Mountain View campus. We asked ourselves, “Why aren’t there more people of diverse backgrounds building apps for Android?” We noticed that the Android training content offered at the time assumed an intermediate level of programming experience, and decided to challenge that assumption. Was it possible to learn Android without any programming experience? We set out to create a learning path that would enable anyone to become an Android developer, and this remains one of the main priorities for Android’s training content.
As a team of four women at Google with different backgrounds and experiences, we envisioned what this learning process could entail and conducted early user testing to make sure student needs were met. In partnership with Udacity, we co-developed a curriculum for Android beginners. We focused on not only delivering technical content, but also on crafting supplemental materials like app case studies, an easy-to-understand vocabulary glossary and inspiring video content to reduce imposter syndrome. In 2015 the Android for Beginners course launched, and we saw tremendous reception. Soon students were asking, “What’s next?” We expanded the curriculum into a series of courses to help people without programming experience build a collection of Android apps. This was a major step towards building a more inclusive, equitable Android developer ecosystem.
In the six years since, Google continues to grow its investment with a larger dedicated training team. We’re seeing even more demand for beginner Android training, particularly as there are now over 3 billion active Android devices in the world. With a platform that evolves as quickly as Android, making sure learners have access to up-to-date materials that reflect development best practices is a major priority.
The latest course is Android Basics in Kotlin, available now for people with no programming experience who want to build basic Android apps within the flexibility of their own schedule. Beyond this online curriculum, we created materials for different learning styles so everyone can learn these critical Android concepts. To support students who learn best with others, we have facilitator materials that are useful for a group setting. To support more traditional classroom learning, we offer a university classroom curriculum that educators can adapt for their teaching environments. Next up, we are working on a training course in Compose, which is Android’s latest toolkit for building user interfaces.
Since that very first conversation that sparked the idea for this initiative, it was always about wanting to empower people. To date, hundreds of thousands of students have started their Android training. It has been incredible to witness their growth — both in the skills they acquire and the confidence they gain.
But we’re not done asking the hard questions. We’re still challenging our assumptions, and we’re as committed as ever to enabling more people to build products that reflect their diverse experiences. This not only unlocks new career paths for people, but it results in a better app ecosystem — one that serves more people, and creates new opportunities.
To stay up-to-date on the latest news in Android training, check out the Android Developers blog.
How a team of four women tackled the challenge of making the Android developer world better for everyone.
Website: LINK
This week, we hosted the Google for Games Developer Summit, a free digital event for game developers, publishers and advertisers to come together globally. Though we couldn’t meet in person, we’re grateful for the chance to share our latest solutions for developers to create immersive and memorable gaming experiences for players everywhere.
All keynotes and sessions from the summit are available on demand. Here are a few things we discussed during our keynote sessions:
Easier game development on Android
The new Android Game Development Kit can help make game development easier while Play as you download and the new Reach and devices data and insights tool can help get your games running on more screens and drive your launch success on Google Play.
Get the most out of your games on Stadia
Bringing games to Stadia is now even easier. We revealed new initiatives coming soon that will maximize the return on launching Stadia titles, including an affiliate marketing program, sharing monthly Stadia Pro subscription revenue with partners and an updated revenue share split for new transactional games launching under the new Stadia terms.
Drive lasting business revenue and growth with Ads
This past year, we have seen more people than ever play online games, which means there’s a growth opportunity to build a more sustainable games business. Get players back to your game while focusing on profitability with target return on ad spend (tROAS) bidding for App campaigns for engagement, or maximize revenue within your game by using AdMob bidding.
tROAS bidding for App campaigns for engagement in Google Ads
Bring your game to global audiences with Google Cloud
With flexible, scalable gaming solutions like Open Saves, Google Cloud helps you serve great gaming experiences all over the world so you and your players can focus on the fun.
As more people turn to games both for entertainment and for connecting with friends and family, we’re inspired by how the gaming community thrived this past year. That’s why we’re more committed than ever to help take your games to the next level.
Highlights from Google for Games Developer Summit. We share announcements and best practices to help take your games to the next level.
Website: LINK